[V11C5] The Worst Person
Translated by Jodas 11: Envoy of the AbyssStarting from the south gate, the Thorn Witch’s Rose Fortress expanded along the walls to surround the entire Wedge Tower campus.
Each rose vine had the ability to absorb mana, and already the mana density along those walls had dropped to a level where humans could safely enter.
Furthermore, while the rose vines were capable of attacking the Monsters, they would only do that near the south gate where the caster could keep an eye on them. Since the roses deployed around the west, east, and north sides were not given attack abilities, it was necessary for the surrounding mages to do battle with nearby Monsters to protect the mana-absorbing vines.
Given that there were no gates on the east and west sides of the Wedge Tower, the humans had to either destroy the wall or fly over it with flight magic.
The mages on the east side stood shoulder-to-shoulder and chanted in unison, aiming to destroy a part of the eastern wall.
Arrows of wind and spears of ice lanced out towards the eastern wall, but just before those attacks could reach the stone, an incredible volume of lightning arrows intercepted each and every attack, before the remainder continued on towards the mages.
“Defensive barriers up!”
As instructed by Guidance Office Director Hegelich, the mages on barrier duty deployed a series of defensive barriers. Then, a man with a large sword used flight magic to leap out from the group.
It was Extermination Office Director Fritz Haydn.
Now that Headmaster Möbius was out of commission, he was the Wedge Tower’s strongest combat asset.
“LIIIEESE!!”
Standing atop the eastern wall was a woman with her bangs cut unusually short. Crystal rivets were impaled into her forehead and palms.
The traitorous mage known as the ‘Hundred-Eyes Witch,’ Anneliese Röhm, held out her crystal-embedded palms towards Haydn.
“Come, Fritz. Let the killing begin.”
The greatest times for Anneliese Röhm, the ‘Hundred-Eyes Witch,’ were the days she spent fighting side-by-side with Haydn.
Haydn, who had been both her peer and her rival ever since they enrolled as Apprentices, stood head and shoulders over all the other mages.
His talent for close-quarters combat with his sword and flight magic rivaled that of Headmaster Möbius, while his long-range attack magecraft was incredibly potent. In particular, he had a knack for adding tracking features to those attacks that could stubbornly keep up with any target.
Just thinking of ways to defeat him gave her no end of amusement. She never regretted a single moment she spent challenging him, fully believing that nothing else could ever be so satisfying.
However, those blissful days came to an end when she was diagnosed with mana organ damage.
Each day she was unable to emit mana the way she desired pushed Röhm’s mind to its breaking point.
She sought out and tried every method under the sun. Each one failed, and yet Röhm did not falter. Even when it meant she was coughing up blood or aching all over, she would tell herself it was all in the name of going back to those glory days. Then once again, she would decipher another document and try to emit mana.
“Röhm, I love you.”
When Haydn confessed his love for her roughly a year prior, Röhm felt a twinge of despair alongside an intense anger.
— Why do you see me as a mere object of affection?
Realizing that it would be impossible for Fritz Haydn to view her as the rival she wanted to be, Röhm had an idea.
What if she chose to reject him instead? He would probably brush it off with a conflicted smile, and beg her to continue thinking of him as a friend.
And then, he would package up his feelings towards her as his ‘former rival,’ and lose that sense of obsession he used to have for her.
(…I don’t want that at all.)
She didn’t want to be Haydn’s lover. But she could not stand the idea of him obsessing over anything or anyone else.
Röhm had spend all this time… all this time obsessing over her rivalry with Fritz Haydn!! She had devoted her whole life for the sake of that rivalry. She had worked herself to the bone, and would do it all again!
Therefore, Röhm suppressed her anger, and responded to Haydn’s confession thusly:
“Just give me some time to think about it, okay?”
She was the worst kind of person.
She had no intentions of reciprocating Haydn’s affection in the slightest. And yet, because she refused to allow his obsession to fade, she drew out her response to his confession as long as possible.
(Come on, come on, I need to fix my mana organs now! Before Fritz loses his passion! Before he gets bored of me! I need to bring our rivalry back to life!)
So, from then on, Röhm became even more fixated on healing her mana organ damage than before.
However, no matter how hard she tried, there was simply no way to patch that hole in her. Every bit of mana she tried to emit would spill out inside her body, causing Röhm no end of pain.
And so, Röhm sold her soul to the devil.
Protection Office Director Böll, old friend to Anneliese Röhm, fired arrows at the bird Monsters swooping down from atop the walls. While sword fighting was Böll’s specialty, she also excelled at the bow.
Unlike swords or spears, projectile weapons such as bows or firearms were rare sights in units that involved mages. A mage would typically prefer to hit their target with attack magic instead.
But considering that they were up against Anneliese Röhm, the ‘Hundred-Eyes Witch,’ non-magical bows and arrows were incredibly convenient weapons.
Draw the string, take aim, and fire. The arrow she fired pierced through the skull of an Eyeball Bird that was bearing down on the mages.
(Liese’s magic works by detecting our mana signatures and launching an attack in response.)
Ordinarily, by the time a mage could detect an attack, there wouldn’t be enough time for them to complete the incantation for a counterattack. So instead, Röhm had her counterattacks already prepared, waiting in standby for the signal.
Röhm’s ‘Hundred Eyes,’ from which she derived her epithet, was a complex form of magecraft that combined both detection magic and lightning-based attack magic into one formula.
She would divide her attack magic beforehand, and tie each fragment to the results of her detection magic. Then, the divided attack magic would fly towards the source of any mana signature. It was an effective counter-spell that could respond to and intercept enemy attacks far quicker than any other mage.
With proper fine-tuning of that detection magic, it was also possible for her to fight a horde of Monsters by locking on to their immense mana pools and eliminating them the instant they were detected.
However, Röhm’s attention was currently focused on the attacks from the human mages, using her ‘Hundred Eyes’ to its fullest.
It was a terrifyingly complex and precise magecraft formula — one only the Wedge Tower’s girl genius Anneliese Röhm could hope to handle.
(But even then, it has a weakness… Liese’s ‘Hundred Eyes’ can’t detect an attack that doesn’t have mana, and the counterattacks won’t activate.)
Therefore, simple physical attacks from bows and slings would be most effective.
That said, Röhm appeared to be well aware of that. As a result, she had deployed Monsters to shield herself from such attacks.
(Sorry to pour cold water on the battle of rivals you wanted so much, but… We’ll be throwing everything we’ve got at this, Liese.)
Before the battle began, she’d cried so much she may well have ran out of tears.
And now, as if to say farewell to those bygone glory days of her youth, Protection Office Director Böll stood tall.
“Eyeball Birds on the approach! Switch from bows to swords! Defend the barrier squad! We will take back our Wedge Tower!!”
Böll howled as she exchanged her bow for a sword, and the mages of the Protection and Extermination Offices hollered in reply.
The ‘Hundred Eyes’ was a magecraft that responded nearly instantaneously in response to any mana signature. Flight magic was no exception.
Responding to the mana from Haydn’s flight magic, Röhm’s ‘Hundred Eyes’ fired a volley of lightning arrows.
Haydn accelerated to draw away Röhm’s incoming attacks, then shot them down with his own lighting arrows.
At the same time, the attack magic squad let loose their own lighting arrows. Röhm’s ‘Hundred Eyes’ responded in kind, starring a back-and-forth of magecraft against magecraft.
Prior to this battle, Hegelich had approached Haydn with a question:
“You don’t mind if I get in the way of your duel, do you?”
“No, I don’t mind.”
Haydn nodded with out hesitation.
Long ago, when he was just a member of the Extermination Office, the two of them would often compete to see who could kill the most Monsters.
And when they were Apprentices, it never mattered who decided to intervene in their magic battles. Haydn and Röhm would happily continue their battle.
Regardless of whether they had allies or not, or whether one or the other had an advantage, both Haydn and Röhm would keep up the fight against their rival with everything they had. Today was no different.
Röhm started the incantation for her next spell. Realizing this, Hegelich also chanted the best spell he had to respond to it.
Röhm was first to finish her incantation.
“O formless king of guidance, heed my call, and demonstrate a fragment of your might. In the name of ‘Hundred-Eyes Witch’ Anneliese Röhm, open the gate.”
Glowing particles of mana gathered before Röhm, taking the shape of a brilliantly shining gate.
Then that gate opened.
“Emerge from the verdant veil of silence, O Spirit King of Wind, Sheffield!”
It was what was considered the ultimate form of Modern Magecraft, Spirit King Summoning.
Through the gate, she borrowed the Spirit King’s power, molding it into the large-scale magic of her desire. Röhm deployed her ‘Hundred Eyes’ to its fullest.
As she did, Guidance Office Director Hegelich likewise raised his staff and shouted.
“O King of flame and promised victory, heed my call, and demonstrate a fragment of your might. In the name of Melchior John Hegelich, open the gate.”
Even in the Wedge Tower, not many could perform a Spirit King Summoning.
One of those few who could was Guidance Office Director Hegelich.
Red glowing particles of light gathered above Hegelich’s head in the form of a gate.
“Emerge wreathed in the fires of ceremony, O Spirit King of Flame, Flemme Brem.”